Meet The Artist Behind Steam’s Dota 2 Animated Stickers

• On the 25th of June, Valve unveiled a brand new profile customization tool. In it, users can exchange “Steam Points” for a plethora of neat emoticons and “stickers” from Valves’ most beloved IP’s.

The Artist Behind Them

DOPATWO Is a household name in the Dota 2 community. He has created some of the funniest and most enjoyable animated skits featuring our favorite heroes. It’s no understatement that the stylistic decisions he uses to evoke feelings of joy and silliness. He often over-emphasizes minuscule features of Dota 2 heroes, and uses that as a central concept to his projects.

Some of His Past Works

One of my most favorite works of his was an entry to the “5 Reasons to Pick” series featuring Terrorblade. A hilarious, yet inspiring story that encompasses the entire philosophy of being careful who you pick a fight with. In that video, we are treated with what makes DOPATWO’s style so perfect for Steams new feature- an expressive and hilarious re-imagining characters that we all know and love.

DOPATWO was approached by for the first time by Valve, and he reported that he was given complete creative freedom in the project. He expressed that they were “respectful” in their interaction, which is sure to emphasize Valve’s integrity when working with independent 3rd parties. DOPATWO’s gargantuan portfolio of doodles and characters were undoubtedly what caught Valve’s attention, as seen on his Facebook profile, in addition to the countless videos he’s published on YouTube.

The Stickers!

For this particular project, we can see that Crystal Maiden, Death Prophet, Storm Spirit, Ursa, Dark Willow, and Lycan were used. Each hero representing the 6 most common forms of expression and emotion; Shock, Sadness, Greetings, Happiness, Dancing, and Anger- in that order.

What I found particularly pleasing was that each of these Heroes encompasses the emotions they represent so damn well. Crystal Maiden, a frail and slow hero- no doubt very jumpy and timid. Death Prophet is literally dead, so that’s a great reason to be sad about something. Storm Spirit’s flamboyance, and immense desire to be the center of attention. Ursa’s apparent aggression and savagery, contrasted by his silly comments and taunt- a gentle giant no doubt! Dark Willow’s annoying and illusive gameplay loop, you can tell she’s dancing under that dark cloud of hers! And Lycan, in severe and dire fits of rage, literally turning into a wolf to hunt you down. 

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Want More of DOPATWO?

It’s no doubt that these heroes were chosen for a reason, and again, DOPATWO was able to masterfully emphasize the features of these heroes to wholly signify the emotion they represent. It’s not currently known whether DOPATWO will work with Valve again. Though if another collaboration were to take place at some point, I simply am all for it! For more on DOPATWO, be sure to check out his YouTube Channel, where you will find skits of a whole bunch of games. My personal unbiased recommendation is his “5 Reasons to Pick” series. Definitely a binge-worthy set of animated goodness!

Get Them For Yourself!

To redeem and collect the stickers to use in Steam’s integrated chatbox, you will need to navigate to your Steam profile. On the top right corner, select “Edit Profile”, then select the blue “Steam Points Shop” button on the bottom of the side-bar on the left side of the page. After this, you can view and purchase DOPATWO’s own stickers by selecting the “Items For Games” option on the left sidebar, followed by  “See All” under”Dota 2″, and finally “See All” under “Animated Stickers”